


an Hbetract 

of tbe 

H^&treee to tbc (3va&uate6 

Delivered b^ 

Zhc C^ost IRev. Ip. % IR^an, 2). B., 

Brcbbtsbop of pbilaOelpbfa, 
at tbe 

79tb Hnnual Commencement 

of 

(Beorgetown XDtnivereiti?, 
3une 23, 1896^ 



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^Xuu. 






••• ••• ••, 



I • • * • • 






|ouR Bminknce, VenkrabIvE Fathers, Ladies, 
AND GentIvEmen : I am invited to say a few parting 
words to-day to the graduates of Georgetown Univer- 
sity for 1896. What can I say to you young gentlemen 
which you have not already heard? I can but repeat 
the counsels which you have received in this venera- 
ble school of sanctity and of learning. As this, the 
crowning day of several years of study approached, your 
hearts were glad and triumphant, and — though you re- 
gretted to leave the men to whom you owe so much, 
and who have given their lives, in poverty and chastity 
and obedience, to the cause of your education — yet with 
all the ardor of youth, you sighed for the day when you 
would enter on your career in the world, and rejoice be- 
cause that day was at hand. 

With the wisdom born of thorough knowledge of the 
human heart illumined by divine light, your reverend 
preceptors, before the time approached, sent you into 
the solitude of a religious retreat for several days, 
where alone with God alone you could look into the 
depths of your own hearts and ask yourselves, What am 
I ? Whence have I come? Whither am I going? What 
is the aim and object of the life amongst men on which 
I am about to enter? I am now a man, and must "put 
off the things of a child." Life is a serious thing for 



me, for eternity is dependent on it, for the talents 
which God may have given to me I must be responsible 
to Him. This retreat is an appropriate close to the ed- 
ucation imparted in this institution. Here you have 
had great advantages. The education is Catholic, not 
only in the religious, but etymological sense of the 
term. It is universal — ph3^sical, mental, moral, and re- 
ligious; but, whilst deeply religious, it partakes not of 
that gloomy spirit which has been unfortunately asso- 
ciated with religion in many minds. On the contrary, 
the young man is here taught that religion is the wor- 
ship of God, and He is the God of the Beautiful, Who 
has given to the young heart the capacity for joy and 
happiness. True religion must recognize that element 
in man's nature, and he must be taught to serve the 
Lord, in the language of the Scripture, "with joy of 
heart." The Catholic Church, with a maternal instinct 
for the protection, preservation, and perfection of her 
children, desires to give them what is given in this in- 
stitution — a thorough, all-round education. The pow- 
ers and strength of the body are called out by the physi- 
cal education in her gymnasium, and her athletic stu- 
dents are amongst the first in the land. Her intellec- 
tual education embraces all the branches of a great col- 
lege and university curriculum. As the foundation of 
her moral education to make good Christians and up- 
right citizens, she cultivates the great religious element 
which God hath planted in the human heart, and which 
is as real as the physical and intellectual elements. 



You know and realize, young gentlemen, tlie admira- 
ble system of intellectual training in whicli you have 
been here educated. It is a system the result of the ac- 
cumulated experiences of the ablest minds of the world 
during many ages. It takes many years to test a sys- 
tem of education. Its advantages may become at once 
apparent, but long experience may be necessary to dis- 
cover its drawbacks. The educational system of the 
Jesuit Fathers has had centuries to test its merits. They 
have adopted all the improvements of the modern edu- 
cational systems, which have had time enough to be 
duly tested. Like the Catholic Church herself, in v^hich 
they are devoted ministers, they are sometimes thought 
to be behind the age; but they are only so, as chariot- 
eers are behind their horses, duly to restrain and direct, 
but not to retard true progress. 

It is sometimes asserted that Catholic education dwarfs 
the intellect and contracts the heart by its partiality and 
sectionalism; that it fears to treat certain subjects which 
might diminish religious faith in its doctrines, and de- 
mands absolute submission, which amounts to intellectual 
slavery. You know, young gentlemen, how false and un- 
founded is this charge, and those who make it must on 
a little reflection be convinced, as you are, of its unrea- 
sonableness. Reason teaches that all truth must be 
from God in both the natural and the supernatural order, 
and that God cannot contradict Himself. He cannot 
reveal one truth in nature and its contradiction in religion. 
Therefore in proportion to the depth and strength of my 



conviction that I possess religious truth is my fearlessness 
that any truth or fact in the natural order can arise to shake 
my conviction. If I have only religious impressions and 
opinions, more or less vague and uncertain, I may fear 
to have them upset by some new knowledge of the se- 
crets of nature, but if I am as certain of my position in 
regard to religious truth as I am in regard to mathemat- 
ical truth, though in a different order, I stand fearless 
of opposition. Now, it will be generally confessed that 
Catholic teachers have this conviction, which nothing 
can shake. 

You well know, young gentlemen, how impartially 
and fearlessly the arguments of unbelievers have 
been stated and refuted in this great institution. 
Nor is there any slavish dwarfing of the intellect in sub- 
mitting to the teaching of a church which that intellect 
has already accepted as the messenger of God to men. 
If such a messenger could err in the transmission of 
truth from the divine to the human intellect, there 
might be intellectual degradation in submitting in mat- 
ters of faith to its declarations, but this is not the posi- 
tion of the Catholic Church. As the laws of the state 
do not destroy nor diminish your liberty, but preserve 
it, so the laws of the Church do not trample on, but pre- 
serve your intellectual freedom. 

The second charge is equally untrue; that the system 
of training and education in Catholic institutions con- 
tracts the heart in its sphere of beneficence by confin- 
ing its sympathies to the members of its own Church. 



You know, young gentlemen, that you have been taught 
within these walls that charity knows no distinctions 
of religious or national character; that, on the contrary, 
the natural result of Catholic teaching is to intensify, to 
universalize and to perpetuate beneficence towards all 
men. You were taught to love your neighbor for God's 
sake and because of God's love to you. And as every 
man, created by God, bears His image upon his soul, 
so to our natural sympathy for our fellow-man is added 
a supernatural element of love for our Creator's 
sake. And as this image is universal, universal 
also must be our beneficence, and as this image is 
permanent, so also must be the effect which it pro- 
duces. Many noble and tender hearts, who have 
loved their fellow-beings with merely human sympa- 
thies, have been chilled by ingratitude and have be- 
come misanthropic. If to the human motive they had 
added the supernatural one and understood the philoso- 
phy of Catholic charity their beneficence would have 
continued, unchilled by ingratitude and undiminished 
by disappointment. You have been told how our di- 
vine Lord and Model, when He would give to the world 
an example of fraternal charity, did not confine charity 
to the orthodox dogmatic religion. When a stranger, 
robbed and wounded, was left dying by the wayside, 
the orthodox Jewish Priest passed by and did not 
heed him, and the orthodox Levite did also pass by and 
did not heed him, whilst the heretical Samaritan unterri- 
fied by the possible return of the robbers, did bend 



down over the wounded stranger and bound his wounds 
and placing him upon his beast brought him to the inn 
and thus saved him from probable death. Your teach- 
ers here in the spirit of Christ inculcated the broadness 
of true Christian charity, and these lessons you must 
act out in the future. Unite with your brethren of all 
religious denominations, or of no denomination at all, 
in acts of public beneficence, and stand with them on 
every platform where they meet to aid suffering human- 
ity, and thus you act in the spirit of the Church which 
inculcates charity to all men. 

It is also sometimes asserted that the influence of the 
Catholic teaching is to contract the heart in its devotion 
to one's country. This false and humiliating charge of 
want of patriotism amongst Catholics has occasionally 
been put forward. It is extremely difficult to answer 
such a charge in patience. A man's country is as his 
mother, and when a man is charged with not loving his 
own mother, his heart and not his head answers the 
charge, and almost irresponsibly tends to answer it 
through the medium of his right arm. If any man should 
charge a member of the Georgetown Athletic Club with 
not loving his mother or his country, it is probable that 
the only hope of safety for the accuser would be his 
ability to distance the champion runner of this Univer- 
sity. Treat with deserved contempt such a charge and 
be ever loyal to your glorious country. You well know 
that your Church teaches that patriotism is a duty and 
a virtue, and thus elevates, intensifies, and consecrates 



it. Should you be called in the future to participate in 
the government of your country, retain and act out the 
lessons you have here learned. Love truth and ''the 
truth shall make you free." Be no slaves to party, but 
loyal to the truth you find, wherever it exists. Ever 
remember the glorious expression of an American 
Statesman, "I would rather be right than President." 
On the subject of the responsibility of public life I know 
of no one who has written more clearly or acted more 
surely than that political philosopher, Edmund Burke, 
and I can commend his writings and his example to 
you, if you should ever become public men. If you 
embrace some of the learned professions or engage in 
business, remember that you look forward and aim 
higher than mere money-making or empty fame. Act 
from a thought of supreme duty to God and man. You 
may not always achieve success, but you shall always 
attain that which is better than success, namely, to de- 
serve it. The man who succeeds without deserving it 
is inferior to the man who deserves it without succeed- 
ing. Finally, gentlemen, amidst all the scenes of your 
future life, bear in mind the magnificent Ideal con- 
stantly kept before you during your course of study and 
training within this University, that Ideal is no other 
than that perfect Man and perfect Model of men, our 
Divine Lord. He has been, is, and ever shall be, the 
Model of the Christian gentleman with all the strength 
and power and dignity of humanity, united with all its 
sweetness and gentleness. Grouped around Him in 



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His own Society, you see the Fathers of that Society, 
adoring, loving, and imitating Him. Xet the sacred 
memories and scenes of this holy home rise up before 
you in the days of future temptations, the illumined 
altar, the vested priest, the ascending incense, the 
sweet songs of praise and love, the emotions that thrilled 
your young hearts after Holy Communion. Let these 
be remembered in the hours of future conflicts, when 
your faith and your chastity may be sorely tried. You 
have a glorious mission to this age and country. 
Strength of faith, loyalty to authority, vigor of chastity, 
should be the effects of your education here, and with 
these strengthened and purified you go forth to act out 
your great destiny, to influence your age and country 
for good, and attain the ends for which God hath created 
you. 



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